Why Physically Meeting Together Critical

March is already gone!  Thursday 27th we reviewed the difference between knowing and knowing.  English is so very limited in its expression. In Spanish it is conocer vs saber.  Conocer is always used when speaking of a person knowing another person.  While saber refers strictly to factual knowing.   There is no English equivalent word corresponding with conocer:  best we can say is to know personally. In Genesis the context reveals what sort of knowing was intended when Adam knew his wife Eve, but this is not the knowing we mean either. That is, we are not talking about physical intercourse, although that can be a part of the intimacy of personally knowing, it is not the main idea.

John felt so comfortable with Jesus, (lets keep pure thinking here) that he leaned up against him during meals.  The custom was everyone lay around a meal set on rugs on the floor.  It was not at all unusual for many to be close together on an elbow next to each other.  The mention illustrates a family gathering and the uniqueness of personal closeness of friendship and brotherhood. 

But even closer than John leaning on Jesus' "bosom", is the ability of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, to intimately speak to us and us to HIM.  There is a vast difference between knowing all about Jesus, or praying to an image of him, whether that is a phyiscal image or statue, or an mental image, versus talking directly to HIM in the spirit.